A last coffee at our tree house - note the bag that they use to bring us coffee has a sloth on it, since we were in the sloth house....
A last breakfast at the Tree House brought us a good look at an Owl Butterfly, a master of camouflage and the only one we would see during our trip....it is eating on the banana and its head is below and to the left of the big owl "eye"...with limited lighting and a zoom lens this is the best I could do but below my photo is a photo I found on the web.
With larger animals we hope to see such as monkeys and scarlet macaws, it's easy sometimes to overlook the smaller ones, like an Owl Butterfly...quite a sight really.
As well as some lovely flowers....a passion flower in this case.
Time to hit the road and, well this was to be the first of a few moments of excitement in the discovery of what driving in Costa Rica can be like. There are very few major highways like we have back home, and as we would discover later, even Highway #2 - the PanAmerican highway - is only 2 lanes.
The road to Naranjo - "Highway" 141 - was a two-laner, and twisty through some mountain areas. And some fog rolled in.
Where'd that truck go?
So here we are, following a very slow moving truck, which considering the visibility, was probably a good thing...until a bus showed up behind us. Now Costa Ricans are known as being friendly, helpful, and laid-back. They are affectionately referred to as Ticos. And we discovered that to be true, except when they are behind the wheel of a vehicle. Then many seem to become much more aggressive, we saw plenty of examples of dangerous driving - passing on curves for example. And this bus driver saw no problem in following us about 6 feet behind us...so we are now sandwiched between that truck and a bus...crawling along at well under 10 kph.
So at that speed, the 57 km drive took over two hours, which meant we were late for our 930am reservation at Espiritu Santu Coffee Farm.
But that was no problem for the Ticos at the farm...they were happy to give us a tour of the plantation, home of Cafe Naranjo (pronounced NA-ran-YO), even though we were over an hour late.
Cory being the huge coffee fan that he is, gets right to work....picking...
then grinding the beans...
ah may be a bit faster to let the machines do it...
with that delightful aroma...
Coffee plants.......
and a flowering coffee plant...
Rony - our tour guide - then demonstrates the traditional Costa Rican method of brewing coffee, using a chorreador which rather looks like an old sock.
First Rony warms up our cups...
then mixes just enough of that Naranjo coffee with hot water at just the right temperature...
pours the mixture into the chorreador...and lets it drip into the coffee pot
and we enjoy!
let's take some home Dad!
Time to get back to some excitement, shall we? How 'bout some CROCS? We head south once again towards Rio Tarcoles, where dozens of crocodiles can be seen from the highway bridge. This is not my photo since the bridge area has become a bit of a tourist trap and we wanted to get closer - much closer - to those huge reptiles.
But once again an adventure on the drive down from Naranjo to Tarcoles...the yellow line...
Some very narrow mountain switchbacks....this one timed perfectly to coincide with a sugar cane truck going the opposite way....it was a hairy moment for sure and our photographer momentarily forgot about the camera! But we get though that little piece of Costa Rican adventure...and have a really good laugh about it all...
and then just a bit of tropical rain...
At one point we were able to get onto a major highway - Highway 1 - a four laner! Ironically, it was gridlock due to an accident, so once again we were in danger of being late, this time for our 3:30pm tour with Jungle Crocodile Safari...
But the traffic cleared up, so we made it on time....
and we boarded a boat...relieved a bit to see a nice big boat! - for a personalized tour since no one else had booked at the same time.
and we head up the Rio Tarcoles in search of birds and crocodiles...
and one of the first birds we see is a Great Blue Heron...we have plenty back home but this one seems more colourful than the ones we see just about every day.
and a Great White!...Heron, not Shark...
a Tiger Heron...with a white Cattle Egret...
A Caracara...first of many we would see....and our first croc! lurking, mouth wide open, teeth bared!
and a bit further along...the largest crocodile in this part of the river....affectionately called "Mike Tyson"....rises up onto the shore to let us know he's there, and he's in charge of his river...
now that he's shown us just how big he is...back into the water he goes...
but always keeping his eye on us...
Further along we spot a few more crocodiles, a few more birds but then we take a moment to just stop and enjoy the beauty and noise of the jungle...
then head out to sea where the Rio Tarcoles meets the Pacific Ocean, and a nice spot for a dad and daughter to go for a walk...
but a rainstorm forces back on a fun fast return ride to our dock...
We would wrap up this 3rd day of our trip with a night at Hotel Pumilio, near Herradura. A nice little hotel, with a nice little pool, but BIG BURGERS!
A day of big crocs and big burgers....
Our next update will be about the next day - a long day of driving...and our driving adventures become even more adventurous...on our way to a rented home called Tucan Terra on the Osa Peninsula on the southern Pacific coast, quite near to Panama.
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